Spiritual Wealth

Human beings cannot manage without turning material things into more useful form, that is without producing wealth. Of course, we get some or even many of our necessities directly from nature, but not quite enough of them. We need to, or someone needs to, till the ground, harvest the crops and to bring where they will be used or sold and so on.

God says in the Bible that we ought to be perfect, as He is perfect. We need that. Perfection is our end. And none of us is perfect. So, we are left with the task of producing spiritual or moral wealth. Tilling the ground of our hearts, harvesting the crop and making good use of it. Now, the question is, how is one to become perfect. How to produce spiritual wealth?

This is a very important question for economists as well. One of the founding fathers of modern economics, Alfred Marshall, said that the ultimate aim of the economist was to develop unselfishness in oneself and in others. And he added that two of the greatest forming agencies of human morality and spirituality are the religious and the economic.

It matters a lot how we use our money. We can use it so that it makes us worse or so that it makes us better. The key to spiritual development is obedience. If we do a good act for any other reason but because we love the other person or because we love and respect God, then we are not really doing a good act. If we do it to show of, or out of jealousy or envy, the good act only makes us worse.

The problem, then, is how does one become obedient. How does one learn to love God and so learn to trust Him. The way to learn to love God is to know God. God loves us, and when we really grasp that, we start to trust Him and as we trust in Him and see that it works, we fall in love with Him. This is the way to spiritual development and this is why Jesus is so very important:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life.”